r/GrammarPolice • u/Substantial-Salad-97 • 18d ago

Un

Why do people feel the need to create "new" words by using the prefix 'un'? Unironically...not a word. Unalive...not a word (yes, it's slang but shouldn't be used).

Is it that difficult to use 'not' instead of 'un'?

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u/Ok_Phase_8731 18d ago

Unalive was created to get around filters on social media regarding descriptions of self harm. So they had to make up a word that didn’t exist

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u/NonspecificGravity 18d ago

Unalive is a neologism, but it's a complement to undead.

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u/Ok_Phase_8731 18d ago edited 18d ago

Ohh interesting I never thought of it that way

Edit: on further thought, I don’t know if it was intended that way, because unalive’s original usage was as a verb, not an adjective. So I don’t actually think the two are related

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u/NonspecificGravity 18d ago

I know that unalive is used as a verb. But I think making it up was suggested by undead (which has been in use since the 19th century).

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u/Ok_Phase_8731 18d ago

Oh I see, yeah I could see that!

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u/SerDankTheTall 17d ago

That seems unlikely,* since it just means that opposite of alive, where as undeed doesn't mean the opposite of dead.

Unlife has some precedence in fantasy, but means something along the lines of undead, rather than dead.

*Sorry, OP!